Problems with Serial Commands

[J F B]

I want to send a single character at 1200 8N1 to a microcontroller in order to close a specific relay. I can control them perfectly using Hyperterminal, but I'd prefer to activate the relays using Girder.
Per the documentation, it seems like I need to create a device driver and save that file in the Plugins\serial directory. So, I typed up the following and saved it as basic.lua :

local device = serial.Classes.Simple:New({
Name = "Basic",
Description = "Description of my serial device.",
Baudrate = 1200,
})
serial.AddDevice(device)

However, when I add this device to COM1, it says the status is "Not Running" and when I pull up Serial Send under the actions menu, it doesn't list my device under the pull-down. I also tried embedding this function into the device driver description:

Send1 = function (self)
self:Write (1)
gir.TriggerEvent ("sent 1", 18)
end

But then the driver wouldn't load at all.
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

[Rob H]

The first thing is that it's BaudRate rather than Baudrate (Lua is case sensitive).

I couldn't see anything obviously wrong with your Send1 function, so it might be to do with the placement. It should work providing it's the last thing in the serial device.

If you open the Interactive Lua Console you'll see any errors.

[Promixis]

I want to send a single character at 1200 8N1 to a microcontroller in order to close a specific relay. I can control them perfectly using Hyperterminal, but I'd prefer to activate the relays using Girder.
Per the documentation, it seems like I need to create a device driver and save that file in the Plugins\serial directory. So, I typed up the following and saved it as basic.lua :

local device = serial.Classes.Simple:New({
Name = "Basic",
Description = "Description of my serial device.",
Baudrate = 1200,
})
serial.AddDevice(device)

However, when I add this device to COM1, it says the status is "Not Running" and when I pull up Serial Send under the actions menu, it doesn't list my device under the pull-down. I also tried embedding this function into the device driver description:

Send1 = function (self)
self:Write (1)
gir.TriggerEvent ("sent 1", 18)
end

But then the driver wouldn't load at all.
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

can you attach your .lua file?

[J F B]

Here is the lua file. I changed the BaudRate, thanks. It still isn't showing up in the actions menu, though, and lua says that the function is nil when I try to call it. Maybe I'm not calling it correctly.

[Rob H]

You may want to try giving it a GlobalName property as well.

[jmonier]

I've found that GlobalName is necessary for it to show on the list of devices. My devices do show "Not Running", however, and still work fine.

[Promixis]

I've found that GlobalName is necessary for it to show on the list of devices. My devices do show "Not Running", however, and still work fine.

the "status" of the device is set by your intiialization code...

maybe just change it "Port Opened" :)

[J F B]

Yes, the GlobalName setting was all I needed. Well, that and figuring out that I needed to be using \-slashes instead of /-slashes (\r\n) when I was trying to transmit a carriage return :D
Thanks everyone for your help.

[Promixis]

Yes, the GlobalName setting was all I needed. Well, that and figuring out that I needed to be using \-slashes instead of /-slashes (\r\n) when I was trying to transmit a carriage return :D
Thanks everyone for your help.

Great,

would you mind uploading your .lua file to http://www.promixis.com/uploads_list.php

in case someone has a similar project?

[J F B]

Sure thing. I'll send it once I clean the file up a bit and add some comments. Ultimately I'm trying to write a driver for a Digitech scrolling LED display. I'll post that too if I have any success.

[Promixis]

Sure thing. I'll send it once I clean the file up a bit and add some comments. Ultimately I'm trying to write a driver for a Digitech scrolling LED display. I'll post that too if I have any success.

thanks.